The Catalyst (12 page)

Anna hid behind Luc.

“Oh for God’s sake,” Cain said, “I’m not going to
hurt you.”

“You
did
try to kill her,” Luc said. “It’s not
as if her fears are irrational.”

“Tried and succeeded, in a roundabout way, but that’s
neither here nor there. She’s one of us now. Have you seen Leo and
Duke?”

Luc’s face turned serious. “Go easy on them, they’re
young.”

“Young, my ass. They’re plenty old enough to know
better. I’m not grading on a curve. If they can’t follow the very
few rules I have, they’ll learn the hard way. Where?”

Luc pointed to the front lawn of the Phi Beta Sigma
house. Leo and Duke were in full demon form, claws and glowing eyes
and fangs on full display for drunk co-eds who were too stupid to
know what they were seeing. Duke chugged beer out of a funnel,
while Leo helped him as the crowd chanted “Drink, drink, drink,
drink, drink.”

“Excuse me,” Cain said, squeezing past the couple. “I
hope to see you back home again. It’s your home even if you’re
avoiding it.” His gaze shifted to the brunette on his brother’s
arm. “It’s your home too, Anna. I have no interest in harming you
now.”

The olive branch he extended didn’t cause Anna to
move from behind her protector. Cain growled in frustration and
strode to the demons that needed discipline.

“Leo! Duke!” he shouted. He was sure his face held a
paternal look of displeasure.

The two looked up, fear in their glowing eyes. “We
can explain,” the beer chugger said.

“I’m sure I’ll be quite fascinated by your half
truths when we get home. Let’s go.”

The two looked at each other and bolted, running
through the crowd, counting on him not making a scene in front of
the humans. Good instincts.

“Ow!” “Watch it!” “Asshole!” people shouted as the
demons shoved through the costumed throng, Cain hot on their
trail.

He bumped into one rather attractive woman and
stopped, his gaze scanning over her form before giving her an
appreciative wink. “You and I will be meeting again later.” He
slipped a suggestion in her mind and caught her when she nearly
fainted. His mouth pressed against her ear, and he whispered,
“You’re going to be delicious.” He left her disoriented and darted
through the crowd after his wayward demons.

Whether it was because they were young or just
lumbering idiots, the demons had moved away from the humans and
into the forest. Perfect. Cain used his full speed and cornered one
of them.

“Where’s Leo?” They’d split up. “No matter. I’ll deal
with you now and find him later. He’s got to come home sometime.
The longer he’s out, the worse it will be for him.”

Cain grabbed Duke by the scruff of the neck and
dragged his struggling form to the portal point before tossing him
through and following him to the other side. The demon broke into a
run again, but it was a pointless attempt. He was too young.

“Stop. Running is only pissing me off and lengthening
your sentence.”

Duke stopped running. Cain wouldn’t call him a smart
demon, but he wasn’t utterly retarded at least.

“Now shift. If you aren’t in your human form, by the
time your punishment is over you won’t be able to shift back to
feed. Then I’ll have to waste a day hypnotizing a woman into
finding you appealing. And believe me, in your demon form it’s a
near impossibility, even with my power.”

The demon’s eyes widened. He knew what this meant.
“Please, sir, I’m sorry. I was just… I was just having a little
fun. I thought demons were supposed to have fun.”

“Demons aren’t supposed to disregard my direct
orders. Jane almost damaged her relationship with her mate because
of your stupidity. Then, showing your true form in the human
dimension…”

“It’s Halloween, they don’t know! Do you know how
convincing some costumes are now? They almost fool me! A bunch of
drunk college kids aren’t going to know anything!”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not worth the risk. Every
faction has agreed to keep the humans in the dark. Humans may not
be as strong as us or as old as us, but they are fearful. And they
can get the magic users on their side. I’m afraid your foolishness
has cost you twenty years. Go.” Cain pointed in the direction of
the caves where he kept the prison for his kind.

He didn’t have to use it often, but he did have a few
demons imprisoned at any given time. The original vampire was the
one being who would never be freed. He’d challenge Cain for control
of the demon dimension, and there was a small chance he could win
that fight. He was a wild card the demon didn’t want to deal
with.

He followed Duke out to the caves. Out here the sand
swirled in an angry sandstorm, the only thing close to weather that
they had in the dimension. It was darker than normal, not the
benign peaceful darkness with brilliant stars overhead, but the
darkness of a hopeless abyss.

The young demon made one final attempt. “Please, I’ll
do anything. I’ll never go against your rules again.”

“Anything?” Cain asked.

“Anything. I swear.”

“Serve your time. That’s the anything you need to do.
And I’m sure you speak the truth. After twenty years being trapped,
bored, and starved, you won’t cross me ever again.”

The caves didn’t require guards. There was no escape
from this place until Cain determined it. It was fortified with
powerful magic from the man upstairs, the kind of magic that
created universes. Cain had been given the caves, and only he could
control them. It was yet another boon the man upstairs had granted
him when creating this world.

There were times when Cain wondered if he were the
devil the humans so feared. How wrong they’d gotten their
mythology. Fallen angels were the original demon breed, known as
guardians. They were mainly mercenaries and bodyguards for the
other preternaturals, since they had no dimension of their own.
They weren’t usually a direct threat to humans—unless one got in
their way. Lucifer was a guardian, and a piss poor one at that,
last Cain had heard. There were many other demon breeds with their
own dimensions, but they weren’t associated with the Hebrew god or
earth, and they rarely had cause to cross over.

The only thing any human had to fear from Cain was
the least painful death they could imagine—the most merciful exit
ramp they had out of here. And yet, they wasted so much energy
fearing this nebulous evil being who they thought wanted their
soul. They flattered themselves.

Cain would never take a soul. At eight thousand years
old, he’d never find a woman who could understand him, so why
bother? He’d waited too long. There wasn’t a woman alive who would
give herself to him forever, knowing everything.

He shook himself out of the brief self-pity and led
Duke to his individual pod. He waved a hand and it opened. “In,” he
commanded.

The demon started to cry. It was unsightly. “Please.
It was just a stupid mistake. Twenty years is unjust.”

“You’re immortal. I have to spend eternity with you
in my dimension. And it was direct defiance that could have harmed
another of our kind and could have harmed us all if the humans had
figured you out. I can’t have anarchy in my realm. Don’t make me
ask you again, or we’ll make it thirty years.”

The demon went into the pod.

“It’ll open automatically when your sentence is up.
Use this time to think about what you’ve done. And pray I catch Leo
quickly. The longer it takes me, the worse his punishment will
be.”

“You bastard. I’ll end you. We will rise up and
revolt!”

“Sure you will. Twenty-five years. Keep talking.”

The demon fell silent and Cain waved a hand to seal
him in. He needed to go help Jane. The other fugitive would have to
wait until he had time to bother with him.

***

Jane sighed, feeling strong and content, cuddled in
Cole’s arms. They were dressed now and snuggled together on top of
the collapsed tent. She had no idea how to fix it. Cole nuzzled his
mark, squeezing her hard enough he would have broken something if
she were human. Good thing she wasn’t.

“We’ll never have a pup,” Cole said, his voice
threaded with emotion. “I’m sure Cain won’t allow us to reproduce,
not after the results the last time a demon and therian reproduced.
But either way, it wouldn’t be a pup. I wish it didn’t bother me so
much, but…”

Stupid, Jane.
In all the missing him and
fighting and feeding, she’d forgotten a very important piece of the
puzzle her mate didn’t know yet. She took a deep breath and plunged
in.

“Our pup is alive.”

“What?” The hope in his voice almost unmade her.

“I should have told you. I was going to, and then…
you know, all this happened.” She gestured at the debris
surrounding them.

“How do you know he’s alive?”

“When I was in heaven, I had screens that I could
watch you and the pup on. I begged them to let me come back to you.
I needed you to know our baby was okay and you were killing
yourself inside that bottle. He’s being cared for by a witch and a
panther therian in the Golatha Falls forest. But he needs to be
with the pack.”

Jane toppled to the ground as Cole got to his feet.
He held out a hand to help her up. “Let’s go get him.”

“Not yet you aren’t.”

Jane looked up to see Cain standing there, an eyebrow
arched in interest at the mess they’d made.

“It must have been some sex to bring down a tent.
Those support poles are pretty strong,” he said.

Jane felt her face heat.

“My dear, demons do not blush.”

“This demon does,” she said. “We have to go get the
pup now.”

“I said, no. I have to teach you how to curb your
appetite when you can’t feed from mate. You’ll wear the poor wolf
out, otherwise.”

“I’m not opposed to that option,” Cole said with a
leer, making her blush deeper.

She punched him in the arm and turned back to Cain.
“But my pup… ”

“ … will be fine. I do wish everybody would recognize
who I am and stop treating me like the wacky sidekick,” Cain
groused.

“Well, if you’d stop getting yourself trapped
in—”

“Cole!” he roared.

The wolf chuckled. Jane had no idea what that was
about, but she didn’t care about their inside jokes. She had her
mate, now she needed her child. Mama bear was all demoned up now.
If Cain thought he was keeping her from her kid, he was insane.

“I can’t read your mind, Jane, but if your thoughts
are reflective of your facial expressions, we’ve got a problem. I’m
trying to help you. The sooner I teach you how to feed, the sooner
you can go to your pup. Cole, go deal with your pack. Reassure them
that you’re in charge of things again. I’ll bring Jane to you when
we’ve got things sorted.”

The werewolf and demon growled at each other, neither
of them used to deferring to anybody for any reason. After a bit of
a standoff, Cole took a portal charm and headed back to the pack.
Then it was just Cain and Jane standing on top of the rubble.

“Shall we?” He held his arm out like he was her
escort at a debutante ball.

She glared at him.

“I’m sorry, is my teaching you how to not starve
without cheating on your mate messing up your day planner?”

“Fine. Let’s just get this over with.”

Cain gave her a brilliant smile, and they headed for
one of the portal points.

An hour later they were standing in an empty alleyway
outside a brothel. “I don’t like this place,” she said. She could
sense too many emotions now. The lives of the women inside felt too
much like the life she’d had to endure with the vampires before
Cole had rescued her.

“I don’t care if you like it. I’m going to teach you
a practical way to snack in between full meals that won’t require
you to be unfaithful to your mate. Feeding off Cole is much
stronger than feeding from a human. So you’ll only need these
stopgap methods for a couple of centuries at most.”

Jane recoiled at that. “A couple of centuries? No.
Oh, no. I can’t do this for a couple of centuries. I can’t be
around this. It’s too… ugh. It’s…”

Cain placed a steady hand on her shoulder, his
expression strangely sincere. “Listen Jane, I get it. I know you’ve
been through a lot, but you aren’t the victim here. The world is
full of evil, and whatever you think of me, humans are far worse.
You can’t let everybody else’s pain become your own. You can do
this. I’ve always been impressed by your strength.”

Her eyes narrowed, not sure she could believe a word
out of the demon’s mouth. Thinking of Cain as any kind of ally,
despite what he’d already done for her, still felt too foreign.
“Really?”

“Really. Now close your eyes and imagine yourself
wrapped in a clear blanket.”

“What?” Airbrushing her form had been one thing, but
this was way too esoteric, especially given that she didn’t
understand what the goal was.

“Watch me.” Cain closed his eyes, a serenity coming
over his features, then he was gone.

Jane looked behind her. “Cain?”

“I’m still standing where I was. You’ll need to be
invisible so no one knows you’re there. Try it.”

It took her several tries before she was able to look
down at her hands and not see them anymore. It freaked her out. A
hand grasped hers.

“Come with me. We have to be quiet.”

Jane felt like a ghost as they moved through the
brothel. It wasn’t as bad an establishment as she’d thought it
would be. It wasn’t wonderful, but it was a nicer place than she’d
expected. He took her all the way to the back room and they slipped
inside the open door, waiting for the next couple to come in.

When they did, Cain shed his invisibility. The woman
appeared mesmerized right away, but the man was upset. “This is my
time. I paid for it. Get out.”

Cain held the man’s gaze. “I’m not here. No one is
here but you and the whore. You can’t hear anybody else or see
anybody else.”